merlyn,
Out of curiosity, are you able to solve those puzzles that give you some shape and ask to identify which other shape represents the original after some rotation or transformation. This is something men typically do better at then women. The other test that comes to mind is the one where you have some flat two dimensional shape and are asked which ones when folded along the edges will become boxes (or some other 3 dimensional shape).

It is completely possible that your brain is compensating in some other way, but it seems to me remembering someone's face would be impossible without some form of visual recall. You can pick out yourself in a group photo right?